Marc Hogan

March 20, 2013 –
Peter Murphy has been released without bail and is pleading not guilty to misdemeanor charges of DUI, hit-and-run, and drug possession. According to a post on the Bauhaus frontman's Facebook page, Murphy will be performing all scheduled concerts.As the Glendale News Press reports, Murphy's lawyer entered his plea in Los Angeles County Superior Court yesterday, but Murphy wasn't present. Murphy was arrested on Saturday after, police said, his Subaru Forester rear-ended a Mercedes in Southern California and he drove off. Police said they found a plastic bag possibly containing meth in a squad car where he had been detained.Murphy's blood alcohol level was 0.01 percent, well below the 0.08 percent legal limit, according to a follow-up post on the goth-rock trailblazer's Facebook page.

March 19, 2013 –
You can almost hear the fake Scott Walker cover now.Mountain Goats main man John Darnielle was, of course, right when he sang not to "be an asshole" to Justin Bieber. Will.i.a.m, who's set to release long-delayed album #willpower on April 9, deserves his breathing room, too. But there's an obvious (we hope) difference between in-your-face paparazzi and measured critique.

March 19, 2013 –
Two boys holding hands, one wearing a monk's robe, the other wearing a black T-shirt and jeans while puffing a cloud of smoke. It's an immediately arresting image. It's also, as you can see above, the cover art for Fall Out Boy's upcoming album, Save Rock and Roll, which has a U.S. release date of April 16 (pre-order here).The reunited emo-punk standouts said in a Tumblr post they found the image on the Internet and identified with the way it brings together old and new. Photographer Roger Stonehouse snapped the original picture in Myanmar. "We came across the punk and monk image on the Internet and it really solidified what we were trying to get across on the record— the idea of old and new clashing," the band wrote. "Tradition and change coming together.

March 19, 2013 –
Not just anyone who raps can get away with calling an album R.A.P. Music. As if Killer Mike didn't show enough on that record, one of 2012's best, why he's the guy he can do it, the Atlanta MC made it thrillingly clear last night on Late Show With David Letterman. And if you saw him at SXSW, you knew all the more that he would."New York," the longtime OutKast associate began, "you are now witnessing elegance / in the form of a black elephant." On his rendition of percussion-rattling "Untitled," though, he roared and prowled more like a supremely amped lion. Guest vocalist Scar, exhorted along by Mike, nailed the song's Old Testament-shadowed hook.

March 19, 2013 –
Peter Murphy, the former lead singer for U.K. goth pioneers Bauhaus, was behind bars yesterday in Southern California, according to the Glendale News Press (via Slicing Up Eyeballs). Police set the bail at $500,000 over concerns that Murphy, who lives in Turkey, might flee to avoid charges. Officials said he was arrested on suspicion of DUI, felony hit-and-run, and meth possession.The arrest came after an eyewitness trailed Murphy from the crash in Glendale to Los Angeles and then got in his way until the police showed up, Glendale police told the News Press. Stirring dark humor on Twitter was the report that Murphy was driving a Subaru Forester when his car allegedly hit a Mercedes around 11:48 a.m. on Saturday.Police said Murphy seemed "very confused" but denied consuming alcohol, acknowledging just that he had taken his usual depression prescription.

March 19, 2013 –
Lil Wayne fans can breathe a sigh of relief, for now. Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles has released the Young Money rapper, label president Mack Maine confirmed last night on Twitter. Weezy had already reportedly been let out of the medical center's ICU unit.The cause of Wayne's health scare remains unclear. TMZ maintains he was hospitalized after "what appears to be a drug OD that triggered a series of massive seizures." Meanwhile, Maine, who was previously quoted by XXL saying he was "not sure" that Wayne had actually typed a reassuring tweet sent from his account on Friday night, has disavowed that report.

March 18, 2013 –
Jason Molina, the singer-songwriter who recorded as Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. as well as under his own name, has died. According to a statement issued by Secret Canadian, Molina passed away on Saturday night, March 16, due to natural causes. He was 39."Jason is the cornerstone of Secretly Canadian," the label says. "Without him there would be no us — plain and simple. His singular, stirring body of work is the foundation upon which all else has been constructed."Originally based in Ohio, Molina first used the Songs: Ohia name on a mid-'90s single for like-minded Americana mystic Will Oldham's Drag City imprint, Palace Records. He went on to build up a prolific and impressive discography, releasing more than a dozen albums from 1997 through 2009, mostly via Secretly Canadian, under his various project names.

March 18, 2013 –
Blur have a new album on the way, but it might not be what the reunited Britpoppers' faithful had in mind.Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Blur is due out on March 26, as NME points out. The Rockabye Baby! series has previously released crib-ready reworkings of songs by the Ramones, Black Sabbath, and AC/DC, among others. A xylophone- and bell-heavy sample is streaming on the series' website.Meanwhile, the grown-up Blur performed on Saturday night at Mexico's Vive Latino festival. Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James, and Dave Rowntree will also be playing at Coachella in April amid a few other 2013 dates, including at Barcelona's Primavera Sound festival.Blur reunited in 2012 for a series of U.K. concert dates that built up to a huge concert at London's Hyde Park at the closing of the Olympics. That show has been compiled onto a five-disc CD-DVD Parklive package.

March 18, 2013 –
Greg Dulli's Afghan Whigs, who reunited last year, have never shied from mixing sultry R&B into their brawny rock. Last May, they celebrated their first TV gig in more than a decade by covering a couple of songs by soul singer Mary "Queenie" Lyons. On Friday night at SXSW, the Ohio-based band was in the midst of an admirably committed — and therefore forgivably pitchy — cover of Usher's 2012-seducing "Climax" when the Confessions crooner himself joined them to flaunt his gorgeous falsetto. After the song, Ush accurately called the Whigs "indie rock royalty" and said it was his first time at the annual Austin confab. He stuck around to help out on his hosts' searing "Somethin' Hot," the opening track from 1998's 1965, and then they backed him on the will.i.am-written "OMG," a dance-friendly hit from Usher's 2010 Raymond v. Raymond.

March 18, 2013 –
UPDATE: The Strokes' Comedown Machine is now streaming in full. Listen at Pitchfork.The Strokes' upcoming album Comedown Machine isn't out until March 26 via RCA Records, but snippets of all 11 songs are streaming now over at Amazon. The New York-hearting rockers have previously shared the LP's synth-y, falsetto-floating "One Way Trigger" and rougher, more predictably Strokes-y "All the Time." The other tracks, on this evidence, split similar territory, with plenty of wobbly synths and well-curdled yowls. Boozy, seasick closer "Call It Fate, Call It Karma" might be the biggest surprise, shading over into off-kilter lounge jazz.It's too late to use these samples to decide if you want to pre-order Comedown Machine on clear vinyl, but the traditional black variety is still available.